


Mesmerizing (Lumity Mermaid AU)

by luzbian



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Good Parent Eda Clawthorne, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, eda is luz's adoptive mom, half mermaid!luz, luz almost drowns at the beginning but thats the worst it gets i swear, made on a whim honestly, mermaid au, mermaid!amity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27146662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luzbian/pseuds/luzbian
Summary: Luz has lived her entire life on a small island, a fear of the ocean confining her to the land. One day, an accident leads to a mermaid named Amity saving her from drowning. Humans aren't supposed to be aware of the existence of merpeople, so Luz makes a promise to keep it a secret.Little do they know that Luz is actually half mermaid herself.ORLuz and Amity are both gay and think the other is really cute, so they ignore the rules and become friends.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 19
Kudos: 189





	1. Splinters and Scales

**Author's Note:**

> //tw for almost drowning at the beginning of the chapter

The cool sea breeze blows through Luz’s hair as she runs along the path. It’s early morning, just as the sun is beginning to rise. She slows to a stop and takes a deep breath, finding the salty air refreshing. 

Walking out to the docks, the teen watches as sunlight begins to reflect off of the boats bobbing in the water. She doesn’t get too close, however. Just a few feet out.

The once dark ocean begins to turn warm shades of pink, orange, and yellow, reflecting the sunrise. Waves lap at the boats and a few straw seagulls caw but otherwise the world is quiet. As pretty as it may be, Luz has never done so much as dip a toe into the depths.

Okay, maybe she has. But never up past her knees and she prefers to not get more than her feet wet. Even though she’s lived here, on this small island, her entire life. She’s had a fear of the ocean her whole life and is very okay with not getting over it.

It’s relatively peaceful out, which is why she enjoys these morning runs. Even extroverts like herself get tired of constantly being around others. Plus, doing this every day helps wear out her energy early on so she isn’t bouncing off the walls, annoying her family.

Something breaches the surface in the distance, catching the light of the rising sun. Luz squints, walking further out onto the dock, trying to see if it’ll happen again. It’s probably just a fish, but you never know. She’s curious by nature.

And it does, the tip of a scaly pink tail meetings the air for a split second. Luz furrows her brows. Fish aren’t that color, right? And they usually aren’t that big, right?

Before she can think any further, a loud crack startles her and she trips, falling to her right. Her foot catches in a hole in the boards--that must’ve been the crack--and next thing she knows she’s surrounded by water.

It’s cold. That’s all her mind can register at first. Cold but peaceful, all the sounds she had heard moments ago now completely muted.

And then the panic sets in. 

These specific docks are above a very steep drop off, hence all the boats. The closest shallow ground is dozens of feet away and the dock is too high up to get a good grip of.

She’s alone. The only one awake.

She doesn’t know how to swim.

Luz fails around violently, trying her hardest to at least reach the surface for air. Maybe she can also scream for help and if she’s lucky someone will hear her. Her legs are stiff, she finds, and she can’t get them to move like she wants to.

_Well, guess I’m gonna die here. Luz Noceda, fourteen years old, drowned because she can’t swim. If only I hadn’t bothered trying to see that weird fish, I wouldn’t be in this situation right now._

Her oxygen has long since left her lungs and she can feel her vision start to fade.

_I welcome you, sweet embrace of death._

_Huh, I didn’t know death actually carries you. Interesting._

And then everything goes black

~~~

Luz stirs as a soft voice is calling out to her. She shivers and pulls her arms closer to her chest, slowly blinking open her eyes. They sting and her mouth tastes like salt. Did she try to drink saltwater again?

“Are you alright?”

The soft voice asks again, clearer now that Luz is awake.

With a groan, she pushes herself up. “Yeah, I’m alright. Are you the one who saved me..” she trails off as she catches sight of the mystery person in front of her.

She looks to be around Luz’s age, with stunning gold eyes and two toned brown hair. Her mouth is pulled into a worried smile. “Yeah, though it was kind of my fault you fell in the first place,” the girl says apologetically.

“A fish distracted me, and you don’t look like a fish to me,” Luz laughs. God, this girl is _really_ attractive. A different thought crosses her mind, however, and she frowns slightly. She would absolutely have remembered someone this cute on the island. “Wait, I don’t recognize me. Where are you from?”

“Uh, if I tell you, can you keep it a secret?”

There’s a common urban tale about sirens who lure people into the sea to eat them. Though, usually it was with singing and Luz doesn’t remember any singing, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. “You’re not a siren, are you? I’d rather not be eaten today.”

Blinking a few times, the girl shakes her head. “No, I swear I’m not. Humans don’t taste good anyways so there would be no point in eating you.”

“Wait, how do you know what humans taste like?” Luz asks, suddenly very concerned.

“Oh, I don’t! But everyone says that they’re not worth it. Too stringy or something. Anyways,” she lifts a hand from the rock she was holding and sticks her pinky finger out, “pinky promise me that you’ll keep it a secret? I’m not supposed to tell anyone where I’m from.”

Against her better judgement, Luz agrees. Her finger is surprisingly cold, but maybe that’s just from being in the water. “Alright, please don’t be too freaked out, okay?”

Luz has always believed in creatures that everyone else said only existed in fantasy. Hell, she’s literally living with an adorable little demon, though he’s the only fantastical creature she’s ever seen in person. Until today, that is.

Her eyes go wide as the girl lifts herself onto the rock next to Luz. Shimmering in the sunlight is a tail where legs would usually be.

She’s a mermaid. A real life mermaid, here, right in front of her. A very cute one too, who also happened to save her from certain death. “You’re a mermaid,” Luz mumbles.

Bashfully, the girl rubs her upper arm and that’s when Luz notices her tail isn’t the only fishlike feature. Her shoulders have scales and there are what appear to be fins on the outside other forearms and her back. They match her tail, a beautiful pinkish purple color that leads into a rich, deeper shade. Behind the brown hair she can see that her ears look like an elf’s, just with added fins along the outside.

Kinda like her mom’s.

“You’re a mermaid!” Luz exclaims, startling the poor girl with her sudden increase in volume. “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to spook you. I just always knew that they existed and I’m very happy to have proof.” she says, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck. “I’m Luz, by the way. Thank you for saving me.”

“I’m Amity,” the mermaid says, revealing white fangs as she speaks. “And please, it’s the least I could do.”

Luz shakes her head. “No, it was the plank’s fault for failing underneath me. Had that stayed together I wouldn’t have fallen in.” Glancing at her leg, she winces when she sees the scrapes. She was too distracted by the pretty girl in front of her to register the pain shooting up her leg.

Amity sees her injury and gingerly places her foot onto her lap. She looks over, her pale face a little reddened. “I’m going to take the splinters out so I can heal you, okay? It’ll hurt a little but I have to do it so the splinters aren’t stuck in your leg forever.”

The human watches, mesmerized, as the mermaid carefully plucks out pieces of wood. Her nails are painted black, she notices, and there are little earrings in her ears. She’s wearing some sort of sleeveless black top that ties around her neck with a golden ribbon. It’s somehow not wet, even though she got out of the water after Luz. Her hair too, she realizes, has already dried a significant amount.

A pink light draws her attention away from Amity herself and instead to her finger. She’s drawing a circle in the air, that pink light trailing behind. When it’s complete Luz can feel the pain in her leg begin to fade until it’s completely gone and when she looks, there’s no evidence she was ever injured.

Luz murmurs in wonder, fingers tracing along her skin. “I didn’t realize mermaids could do magic as well. Thank you, Amity.”

“I-It was no problem, Luz,” she replies, looking down to hide the blush spreading across her cheeks.

Luz feels her face heat up at hearing her name being used for the first time. “So, um, I don’t know how to swim, do you think that you could, maybe… help me back to shore?”

Her heart is beating rapidly as she clings onto Amity, who is swimming though the water at a surprisingly fast face. She’s telling herself it’s because of her fear of the ocean and not because her face is right next to the cutest girl she’s ever seen. Her legs stiffen again, so it must be because of the water.

Amity swims as close to the shore as she can, Luz--much to her dismay--letting go to stand back up on solid ground. She wrings out her shirt as she turns to Amity. “Thanks.”

She receives a smile in return and they stand, or in Amity’s case, lie there, staring at each other in silence. 

“Can we be friends?”

“Can we meet up again?”

The two speak at the same time, both bursting into laughter. Amity shuffles around so she’s sitting on her tail. “We can meet back up over here tomorrow morning, if you’d like.”

Luz’s face breaks into a huge grin and she hops from foot to foot in joy. “Yes! I’d love that! Wow, I’m friends with a mermaid, this is literally the best day of my life. You know, I don’t mind almost dying because it led me to get to meet you.”

“Aww, how sweet.” Amity blushes. “Oh, let me fix your clothes for you. I know humans don’t like being wet for so long.” She draws another circle in the air, all the saltwater soon drawn out into a floating blob and released with a splash back into the water.

Squatting down, Luz extends her arm out. “Promise we’ll meet over here tomorrow?”

Smiling, Amity links her finger into Luz’s. “Promise.


	2. Seashells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapters will hopefully start to get longer eventually once I introduce the characters and the world they're in but for now that this not even 1.5k word chapter that I spent HOURS on

Amity hums as she swims back to her village, excitement coursing through her veins. She’s been intrigued by that one human ever since she happened to catch a glimpse of her that one time she got a little closer to the island than she was supposed to.

_Early springtime. She’s collecting shells along the ocean floor, looking for particular ones to make the type of fabric she needs. While popping a few in her bag, she glances up and skids to a stop, mere inches away from running head first into a rock. She doesn’t recall remembering any rocks in this direction before._

_Blinking, Amity looks around. Nothing looks familiar. The large rock, she discovers, is actually a small island. She swims up and exhales all of the water out of her lungs before she breaks the surface. With a large inhale, she holds onto the edge of the rock and observes her surroundings._

_It’s mostly empty ocean all around her, aside from directly in front of her. There she sees the human island for the second time in her life. The first time had been as a young child, when she was finally old enough to leave the village. Amity remembers her parents with her, making it very,_ very _clear that a human is to never catch sight of her. With a squeak she ducks back below the surface, performing a quick illusion spell to make sure no one happens to spot her._

_That out of the way, she swims closer, curiosity taking over reason. The mermaid knows she’s long since passed the invisible border separating the merfolk from the humans, but there’s no one else out here. No one will know she so blatantly broke the rules. Especially not with this illusion spell._

_So what’s the harm of getting a better look?_

_Amity has to be careful as to not disturb the water too much, especially when she’s not fully underwater. Her body may be hidden, but ripples she causes are not. There isn’t a whole lot she can see asides from some benches and a trail along a small beach._

_A beach? She swims closer and sees quite a few shells scattered around the sand. “Well, can’t hurt to take some of these, right?” Amity murmurs. “I’m already here.” She plucks a few from the ground, inspecting them closely, as if they were somehow different because she found them so close so where humans live._

_Movement out of the corner of her eye causes her to whip her head upwards, to where Amity has a view of the trail. There, she sees her._

_A human._

_And she doesn’t just run past, either. She stops and wipes her forehead--sweat? Humans sweat, right?--with the back of her hand and pops the lid of her water bottle open. Amity watches, completely mesmerized, as this stranger takes a sip and then walks off the path. Onto the beach. Literally not even five feet away from where she is._

_A normal mermaid would get away as fast as possible, right? Anyone with common sense would._

_Unluckily for Amity, all her common sense seems to have been left in merfolk territory._

_She watches, even more mesmerized now, as the girl takes both pairs of coverings off of each foot. The words for both objects, which she’s sure she knows, can’t come to mind. She pulls her legs up to her chest and buries her toes in the sand._

_The human is young and female, probably around her own age. Her skin is considerably darker than her own, a shade of tan that seems to glow in the sunlight. Her dark brown hair is short and a bit unkempt, but (mostly) dry and very fluffy looking._

_Amity wants to touch it._

_Then the girl opens her eyes. They’re a beautiful, warm shade of brown, so gentle yet so full of life._

_She wants more than anything to stay and continue to observe her. But she has no idea she’s being watched, and she’s already stayed way too long. Her invisibility spell is probably close to wearing off. It’s best to leave._

_Gripping her bag of shells between her hands she speeds off, the image of the human already ingrained in her mind._

Today was the second time Amity had gone near the island again. She wanted Luz to catch a glimpse, even if it was something as small as the tip of her tail. She didn't expect her to fall and have to rescue her. The mermaid giggles, still ecstatic over the chance encounter. Luz is even more beautiful up close and she gets to see her again.

“Hey, Mittens!” a pair of voices call out to her, making her jump. The sources reveal themselves a second later, a mermaid and a merman, both with green hair and purplish tails, smiling in front of her. Her older siblings.

“Ugh.”

“Aww, Mittens, we know you’re actually glad to see us,” her brother says, swimming behind her to put his hands on her shoulders.

“Yeah,” her sister chimes in, “you know you love us. Now, can you tell us what you were doing out so early and why you look so happy?”

Amity brushes Edric’s hands off of her and starts moving away. “None of your business,” she states. Emira intersects her, hands on her hips.

“You went out to meet someone, didn’t you?”

Blushing, Amity stutters for a response but can’t get one out.

The purple tailed mermaid smirks. “You did! Was he from our village or a neighboring one?”

Amity purses her lips at Emira assuming she went out to see a boy. “Doesn’t matter because you’ll never meet them, okay? Maybe I did go out to see someone but it doesn’t concern you and you _better_ not tell mom and dad that I wasn’t out doing something useful.”

She feels Edric push her from behind. “Alright, we won’t tell them. But we’re gonna get an answer out of you eventually. Now come, we have breakfast waiting for you.”

With a groan Amity starts making her way back home.

~~~

Luz nervously stands by the edge of the water, heart thumping in her chest. Since she met Amity yesterday, she decided she was going to learn how to swim. Or, at least, be more comfortable in the water. So she decided to spend the time she usually takes to run to do this instead.

But she quickly finds her determination washed away with the waves. Even with how shallow a lot of this particular segment of the beach is, the water causes her insides to squirm. 

She’s friends with a _mermaid_ now, for god’s sake, she has to be alright being in the ocean. How boring would it be to just sit on land while talking to her? Taking a deep breath, she sits down and places her feet down where the tide can lap at them. It’s cold and makes her shiver, but it’s really not that bad, Luz finds.

Peeling off her shorts and top to reveal the bathing suit underneath, she tosses them up near the trail. Time to ease her legs into the chilly water.

Minutes later she’s gotten her legs fully extended out, water making contact up until mid thigh. “This…. Really isn’t that scary. Why was I so scared of this?” she asks herself, splashing the surface with her toes. A smile rises to her face and she giggles. “It’s actually kinda fun.”

Luz, now with a good chunk of her fear gone, stands up and moves a couple feet further in. The cold water around her waist sends an unpleasant shiver up her spine. She giggles again.

“Look at me, halfway in the water! Only took fourteen years,” she says as she wiggles her toes in the water. Or tries to, at least. Her euphoria over conquering her greatest fear distracted her from realizing her legs had become numb.

Panic hits her like a slap in the face. This same thing happened twice yesterday that she assumes was due to her being scared, but now she isn’t and look, can’t move her legs! Luz attempts to move herself backwards but her hands slip in the wet sand every time she tries to get a decent grip.

The only thing she can do is grit her teeth and wait it out. Her entire lower half is tingling, almost painfully, for what feels like an eternity, and then spreads up to the rest of her. Then, as suddenly as it began, the tingling stops.

_Huh, that was something,_ Luz thinks, her breathing slowing down again. She learns forward and puts her hands on her legs.

Except her hands touch scales.

Eyes flying open, she looks down. Bright, vivid purple enters her vision and she nearly does a double take.

She has a mermaid tail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dear god writing so much exposition is hard how do some of you manage to write 6k+ chapters that are 70% exposition


	3. Purple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise

Early morning, the sky tinged warm colors where the sun is soon to rise, Amity swims over to the designated meeting place. She’s excited,  _ really _ excited to get to have a good half hour or so to talk to the cute human.

coo And properly this time, not affected by the fact one of them nearly drowned and was then rescued by a creature they hadn’t known existed until that very moment.

She squeals and the tip of her tail twitches as she speeds past sealife. Finally and maybe a little out of breath, she’s at the dock where Luz is already waiting, sitting cross legged on the dock she had fallen off of the day before--seems the hole has already been patched up.

The girl doesn’t see her until she breeches the water, undoing her invisibility spell.

“Amity!” she exclaims, getting on her knees and peering over into the sea. “I was so afraid you wouldn’t show up, I have something  _ really  _ cool to show you that I just found out about.”

Smiling, Amity looks up to the ecstatic Luz, looking just as cute as she has every other time she’s seen her. “There’s no way I would’ve bailed on someone so cute- uh, cool! I mean cool. Yes, that is what I said,” she says, laughing nervously.

If Luz caught her slipup she doesn’t say anything about it, just kneeling there and nearly vibrating in anticipation.

“Um, so what did you want to show me?”

With a giggle Luz repositions herself again so her legs are dangling off of the dock, feet submerged in the cold water. “So this requires me to be in the water and, if you recall, I don’t exactly know how to swim.”

Both girls blush at the memory of Amity carrying Luz to shore in her arms.

“So, I kinda maybe would greatly appreciate it if you could hold me above water as the surprise does its thing so I don’t drown.”

Not having the foggiest idea of what she could possibly be trying to show her, the mermaid doesn’t question it and agrees, a little (lot) distracted by the two piece the other girl has on. She knows that those are a human thing they wear when they go into water, she’s seen it firsthand before and even found some washed up (usually sunken) pieces here and there.

But even though merfolk have and wear something similar, seeing a sliver of tan skin between the top and bottom of the swimsuit makes her heart skip a beat.

“Can you, um, help me down?”

Amity startles, jumping back into reality. “Oh, yes! I can do that.”

They settle on holding hands while Luz is still sitting. She scoots forward until she slips into the water, the other rushing forward to catch her before her head becomes fully submerged.

Their faces end up barely an inch apart, chests flush together as she clings onto Amity for dear life. Her own hands are at her sides, holding her up firmly.

Just as she remembers, swimsuit material feels funny.

Luz can’t seem to meet her eyes for more than a second, always flitting away to look at anything else. But Amity stares into them, that beautiful milk chocolate brown color (how do mermaids know what that is, you ask? Humans end up throwing a lot of stuff into the ocean) that makes her very soul seem to melt.

She snaps out of her infatuated gaze when she notices what looks to be pain slip into the girl’s eyes. “Luz, are you alright?” she asks.

She just nods and squeezes her eyes shut, resting her forehead on Amity’s shoulder.

Unsure what to do or what to make of the situation, she just leaves her there. Her only other viable option is to take her back to shore, but swimming while in this particular position would be rather difficult.

Plus, she isn’t complaining about how she’s essentially hugging the cutest girl she’s ever seen.

Luz’s tense grip loosens after a minute or two and her eyes flutter open as she pulls herself back, leaving a gap between them. She looks down and her face lights up.

Amity follows her gaze, confused, until her eyes land on something purple and scaly.

Luz’s very human legs have somehow transformed into a mermaid tail.

Her mind doesn’t process it for a moment. Is this some kind of human trick? Or some kind of human magic?

Apparently noticing her utter bewilderment the girl- mermaid? speaks up. “It’s real,” she says gently, voice tinged with wonder. “I literally found out about it like, half an hour ago.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” is all Amity can mutter. “You’re a human, humans can’t do this. Unless…” A possibility pops into mind. “Do you know who your parents are?”

“No, I’ve never met my biological parents. Why would that-” The words die in her throat as realization crosses her face. “Are you saying I’m half mermaid?”

The purple, scaly tail seems very real. Luz’s body is visibly struggling to use the tail, like a young merchild’s do when they’re learning how to swim. “Seems so.”

Their eyes lock and grin spreads across her lips. “This summer just got a whole lot more fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quite a short chapter but anxiety is literally eating me from the inside out so this is all I managed to make apologies for any inconsistencies or slight character personality shifts I am trying so hard
> 
> also heres the link ot a discord im in cant guarantee how active ill be in there because im Depressed TM but theres some pretty cool people there have fun https://discord.gg/5qWV8Adw

**Author's Note:**

> wrote a merman au for a different ship a year and a half ago that I never purposed, decided to repurpose it and now it's this! unlike my other fic I actually have a story I want to follow, so updates will be much more sporadic. I also want to write a soulmate au so like. I need to get this or SIMH done first


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